Kyana Parsons-Perez didn’t expect to spend the hours leading up to her birthday in the rubble of her workplace, Mayfield Consumer Products in Kentucky.
However, when a series of tornadoes hit the South and Midwest Friday night and early Saturday morning, the roof of the building collapsed, trapping her and her coworkers inside. Kentucky Gov. Beshear said there were around 110 people inside the candle factory when the tornado hit.
Parsons-Perez told TODAY she felt a gust of wind and her ears popped when the tornado hit the building. As the roof came down, she could hear the diverse community of employees praying, some in different languages.
As she sat in water waiting to be recused, Parsons-Perez tried to keep her spirits up and to keep the people around her positive. She asked them to sing her happy birthday and talked about her plans to celebrate once they got out of the building.
“Ya’ll better laugh with me,” she said at one point in an approximately 10-minute Facebook video.
WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT
Though the video is mostly dark, Parsons-Perez's voice can be heard, along with others. At times, it was hard for her to stay positive. She could hardly move from the waist down.
“I can not feel my legs, I am stuck,” she said. Parsons-Perez said she decided to go on Facebook live in order to stay calm.
According to the Associated Press, she was trapped under around 5-ft. of debris for at least two hours. Parsons-Perez said that people went in and out of consciousness as they waited to be rescued.
Inmates from the nearby Graves County Jail helped them escape from the rubble.
“They could have used that moment to try to run away or anything, but they did not,” Parsons-Perez told TODAY. “They were there, helping us,” she said.
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